Englishtown to North Sydney Day 70

All of the luggage from the two groups had to be sorted onto three piles. One for our last overnight stay.

One to go right through to St. John's

and one for carry on to the ferry. There was lots of carry ons!!!

Overlooking St. Ann's on the way to Argentia to catch the ferry.

At the next lookout, Mike and Don caught up to us while there were travelling to the ferry. This was taken overlooking the Great Bra d'Or Channel

Our ferry to St. John's, the Clara and Joey Smallwood

30 bikes from the two groups had to be mounted on the top of the van and trailer as the big trucks did not go on the ferry
We waited for almost 3 hours in line to walk our bikes on. The ferry loading appeared to be very inefficient. Don and Mike were the first two vehicles on the ferry and they loaded at about 10:00 pm. We loaded about 10:45 for a 11:00 sailing. When we got on the ferry they didn't have any place for our bikes to be tied and they wanted us to simply lay our bikes on the floor. We protested and finally they found a place for us to go.

Today is day 70 of the tour and both groups are together now for the final leg of the trip to St. John's, Newfoundland. This morning, the temperature was comfortably warm so packing the tents away dry was a plus. We had to sort through our "stuff" since the two large trucks used for the tour will leave us and we downsize to a van and large trailer. Thirty of the lighter bikes will be put on top of the van and trailer so that will be interesting to see. We arranged one carry-on for the ferry, our tent bag for Whitbourne, Newfoundland's overnight stay and what we don't need till St. John's, in another bag. Three separate tarps were spread out on the ground for these three separate bags. The staff prepared a hamburger lunch and we were off for our 42k to North Sydney around 1 pm. Sure got warmer after lunch!!

We travelled along route #105 right to the terminal. Another beautiful ride but not realizing we were climbing up another mountain till at the summit and saw the sign for Kelly's Mountain. Not too tough a climb. We were pulling into the summit lookout when Don and Mike pulled in behind us in their cars. They had left Moncton this morning around 0830 to meet us at the terminal and this was around 2pm. Beautiful view of the coastline and valley. After our descent, we cycled over the Great Bras d'Or Channel Bridge. We had a bit of a tailwind the remainder of the ride to the ferry. Bikes were loaded on top of the van and trailer at the terminal and the remaining 12 bikes were walked on later. We were able to shower at the terminal and then out for supper. It was a long wait before we could go on and departure was 11pm. There seemed to be a lot of disorganization because of changes to the ferry computer system everyone was trying to get use to. We had booked lounge chairs for the 14hr crossing but wished we had chosen berths. The evening was warm and a full moon to view while waiting in the parking lot to walk our bikes on. Then in the ferry, they didn't have an area designated to place our bikes so that took a bit more organizing but once all that was sorted out, we went to the lounge chair areas to settle in for the night.